'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Recap – 'The Asset'

Driving down the highway, a trucker, seemingly carrying office supplies, speaks on his CB and we realize quickly there is something different in the back of the truck. Black SUVs pull up in front of him and behind him as escorts to his unknown destination. Within seconds the SUV in front floats in midair as if grabbed by an invisible hand. The SUV behind pulls in front and suffers the same fate. The truck driver radios for help, revealing he is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and his truck too is lifted into the air and slammed to the ground. Tractors with cranes rip open the back of the truck where a strapped in Dr. Franklin Hall (Ian Hart) is taken.

Agent Ward is beginning his workout routine on the heavy bag, when his late student, Skye finally arrives for training. While Sky reluctantly punches the bag, Ward tells her that every field agent has a defining moment.

Melinda states over the bus loudspeaker that their course has changed to a Colorado airfield. Coulson gathers everyone else and notifies them of Dr. Hall’s kidnapping. Coulson goes on to describe that the attackers were invisible, but only Skye is excited about this.

When the team gets to the site, Coulson and Melinda speak with the trucker, Agent Mack, and he states that Dr. Hall’s kidnapping may have been an inside job. Fitz-Simmons, Ward and Skye investigate the path where the truck was lifted, they discover a small metal ball creating an energy field.

Back on the bus, Coulson and Melinda discuss the possibility of a mole, while Fitz-Simmons study the metal ball in their lab. They run a search for possible suppliers from the tractor tire treads they find, coming up with a list of 3. Melinda hands Skye a giant binder of communication transcripts out of S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ regarding Dr. Hall, hoping to uncover the mole.

One of the possible suppliers is riding his horse and runs into Coulson. Coulson confronts him about supplying the tractors and asks who he sold them to. As the man pulls out a shotgun at Coulson, Ward comes out of nowhere and quickly disarms him. The man admits he sold them, but never heard a name, and was paid in gold bars.

Bringing the gold bars back to the lab, Fitz-Simmons discover their origin, coming from the Dacey Mine in Tanzania, which is owned by Ian Quinn (David Conrad), a famous millionaire and chemical engineer.

In the Republic of Malta is where we find the Ian Quinn’s estate, where he is holding Dr. Hall in an underground facility. We soon realize he and Quinn are colleagues. Quinn said his people were tipped off about transport of “an asset” and assumed it was Dr. Hall. Quinn says Dr. Hall should think of it as a rescue mission, where in Malta, no one can touch them due to International Law. Quinn shows Dr. Hall a small metal ball, stating that Dr. Hall was right, and he found the substance Hall had been looking for.

“Gravitonium,” Fitz states to the team. A rare element, many people didn’t even think existed, and it distorts gravity fields around itself when charged with an electric current. Dr. Hall is the one who developed the theories around the element. Fitz also finds Dr. Hall and Quinn went to Cambridge together.

Dr. Hall warns Quinn that gravitonium is unstable and very dangerous. Quinn shows Dr. Hall a large 12 foot sphere, a generator, after which Quinn asks Dr. Hall for his help to control the gravity fields, knowing Dr. Hall would want it done correctly.

The team try to figure out a way in to Quinn’s estate, stating they would need a person on the inside and that there is a meeting of stockholders taking place there shortly. Stating that she’s not an official S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and wouldn’t be breaking International Law, Skye offers to go in and be the person on the inside. While Melinda, Coulson and Ward argue about her being able to do it, Skye fiddles on her phone, then holds it up showing that she got an invitation to the shareholders meeting.

As Ward trains Skye in self-defense, disarming someone of a gun, he explains protecting himself and his little brother from their older bullying brother was his defining moment. She correctly disarms Ward but he warns getting the gun is one thing, pulling the trigger is another.

Coulson and the team look at the layout of the estate and its security. A laser grid surrounds the best point of entry, and to disarm it, Fitz gives Skye a device disguised as a compact mirror that will enable them wireless access to the security system.

At the shareholder meeting, Skye is being fed information by Fitz-Simmons via an earpiece. She spots Quinn and walks up to speak with him. Impressed with her abilities, knowing Skye hacked into the system to get an invite, Quinn offers her a job. He then heads to a podium to speak to the shareholders.

Quinn addresses the crowd and reveals he has developed a gravitonium generator. Dr. Hall works on placing a large mass of gravitonium in the center, as we see Ward and Coulson arrive by boat on the beach.

Leaving the speech to explore the estate, Skye gets inside but is met with locked doors. As she is getting help from Fitz-Simmons on the earpiece, Quinn walks up and asks what she is doing. About to call security on her, Skye quickly writes down on a piece of paper that S.H.I.E.L.D. is listening to their conversation.

As Skye and Quinn talk in his office, Skye drops the earpiece in a glass of champagne, cutting off communication with headquarters. She explains that she played along with working for S.H.I.E.L.D to get information. Quinn wonders why they trusted her.

Coulson and Ward fight off security people as they reach the laser grid. Melinda tells them that they’ve lost communication with Skye, delaying any chance of getting inside.

Quinn continues to talk to Skye suggesting that S.H.I.E.L.D sought her out because she is a loner with no family, stating they prey on fear, loneliness and desperation. He states that he wants to offer Skye something better but she needs to first tell him exactly the agenda from S.H.I.E.L.D she was sent in with. She opens up the compact Fitz-Simmons armed her with.

Coulson and Ward barely make it through the 3-second window when they laser grid is down. Coulson goes to find Dr. Hall, while Ward goes to find Skye.

When an alarm is set off, Quinn figures out Skye is really working for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Coulson finds Dr. Hall and when Coulson states he has an exit set up to get them out of there, Dr. Hall says he’s exactly where he needs to be. Coulson understanding now that Dr. Hall wants to be there, Coulson says that gravitonium is too dangerous in Quinn’s hands. Dr. Hall says it’s too dangerous in anyone’s hands, revealing his real plans of burying it in the ocean along with the entire estate. He turns it on sending everything around them flying.

Coulson radios headquarters with Dr. Hall’s real plans, and realizes after standing up that gravity is skewed, and he’s on the ceiling.

The estate starts shaking. Quinn grabs a gun from one of his guards and points it at Skye, demanding to know what S.H.I.E.L.D is up to. Skye disarms him and Quinn asks if she has what it takes to pull the trigger. With a very quick “nope”, Skye runs and jumps off the balcony into the pool down below. With another jolt of the estate shaking, Quinn realizes his enemy is Dr. Hall.

Dr. Hall pulls a gun on Coulson and explains that he leaked his location so Quinn could take him, know it was the only way to disrupt his plans with gravitonium.

As Quinn escapes in a helicopter, Skye is pinned down by his thugs. She is rescued by Ward who takes her to safety.

With the gravitonium generator still shaking the estate, Coulson is able to grab the gun away from Dr. Hall. With no options left, Coulson shoots the glass they are standing on, dropping Dr. Hall into the gravitonium and stabilizing gravity.

Coulson speaks to an agent, stating that the whereabouts of the gravitonium is to be in a deep vault, no access, and no trace.

Ward watches Skye workout on a punching bag. She reveals to him that she never had family, that she was a foster child.

We see the vault door close on the contained gravitonium and see a hand reach out of the middle of it, revealing the origin of what will be the Marvel villain Gravitron.